Monday, 31 December 2012

Ireland Genealogy Projects Archives has this month finished transcribing the 1854 Irish Constabulary records. For a change of pace the archivists have added the Killinick Vestry Book and several ship records. In addition, some great old photos of headstones from St.Begnet's Cemetery, Dalkey, Co Dublin have been uploaded.

Wednesday, 26 December 2012

FindMyPast Ireland is celebrating Start Your Family Tree Week (starts today and runs until 1 January 2013) with a social media only competition.

It involves searching the FindMyPast Ireland website to find the answers to six daily questions which are posted on Facebook, Twitter and Google+. Most of the answers are in the Family History News section of the website.

The team will also be providing advice and tips for successful Irish genealogy research.

If you follow the competition, you'll have six answers by 1 January and you'll then have a further two days to send them in the judges (at support@findmypast.ie). The lucky winner will be selected from all the correct answers on Friday 4 January.

The top prizes are a Blackberry Tablet and a 12-month World Subscription!

Eneclann has today launched its Winter Sale and is offering 50% off nearly all its titles.

There are some real bargains to be had, especially if you're happy to buy a downloadable version of their publications. The company has been busy this year converting many of its titles to pdf format, thereby reducing production costs. These savings are passed on to the purchaser, who also avoids post and packing charges. Here are some examples:

Downloadable:

Statistical Survey of the County Leitrim, 1802 , €3.85

Round about the County of Limerick, 1896, by Rev James Dowd, €10.08

Index to the Marriage Licence Bonds of the Diocese of Cloyne 1630-1800, 1899-1900, T George H Green, €6.56

CD format:

The Tithe Defaulters, €18.77 +postage

1851 Dublin Census, €21.83 +postage

Parish Register Society of Dublin, Marriage Entries in the Registers of the

A great fat 20% discount is on offer for all new Find My Past UK subscriptions. All you have to do is enter BRANDYBUTTER in the promotional code box to the left on the 'subscribe' page, click 'Apply' and choose which subscription you want.

The discount means you pay just £87.96 for a 12-month Britain Full subscription instead of £109.95, while the annual World subscription (which includes all the Ireland collections as well as those for the US, Australia and New Zealand) comes in at £127.97 instead of £159.95.

You haven't got to rush into a decision! Take your time and see which subscription suits your genealogy research best, but make sure you decide before midnight on 13 January 2013.

The database provider is also promising huge additions during 2013. These include millions more newspaper pages, a new collection of crime, courts and convicts records in partnership with The National Archives, electoral rolls 1832-1928, India Office records in partnership with the British Library, and thousands of new parish records every month.

The official announcement doesn't provide any helpful breakdown of the sources per county.

Genes Reunited has published over 25 million Scottish Census records. They cover 1841 to 1901 inclusive.

This collection, which includes transcribed records but no images, is now available to GenesReunited's Platinum members and to those who view on a pay to view basis.

FamilySearch has added 1,223,754 birth, marriage and burial records from (London) Westminster parish registers. The collection is sourced from 51 Church of England parish, chapel or district church registers dating from 1538-1912. This represents 45% of the total registers of the parish.

A search of these records provides only basic information (name, year and place of event). To view the images (which may or may not provide addtional genealogical data) you have two options. You can either visit a Family History Center, where they are free, or you can pay to view them online via Find My Past.

Family Search has also updated its 1871 England and Wales Census collection. This now holds 5,573,190 transcribed records (it's therefore 81% complete).

Although only transcribed, nearly all the details provided on the census form are provided in the search results. To view the images you need to visit a Family History Center, where they are free. Alternatively you can pay to view them online via Find My Past.

Friday, 21 December 2012

The presentation of CIGO's 2012 Award for Excellence in Genealogy was made yesterday to Northern Ireland’s General Registrar, Dr Norman Caven. The formalities were conducted by Finance Minister Sammy Wilson.

The Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations (CIGO) gives out an annual award which recognises significant achievements in, and relating to, Irish Genealogy. Recipients of this award must excel in a number of categories including provision of physical facilities, preservation of archives and innovation in access to genealogical records and data.

Sammy Wilson said: 'I am pleased to be able to present the award to Dr Caven and his staff in recognition of the hard work undertaken in bringing the General Register Office of Northern Ireland through a modernisation programme of reform. The benefits of this modernisation will provide a first class service to the people of Northern Ireland when undertaking family history and genealogy research.

'As we all move forward in this digital era it is important that government services keep up to date and meet the demand and expectations of our customers. Through this modernisation programme there has been significant improvement in the research facilities available at GRONI. with a new and modern Public Search Room facilitating up to 22 researchers at any one time.

'The digitisation of eight million paper records has allowed for new and more informative indexes to be created. Together with the improved facilities those researching their family history or those researching genealogy will no longer have to endure a lengthy wait – the new computerised records will enable faster, more accurate information enabling the identification of the correct registration.'

The programme of modernisation to public records will continue with the second phase to facilitate online access to historical birth, death and marriage records.

I understand that the 'full online access' project is still on schedule for the end of 2013. Of course, draft timetables are only drafts, but there is a certain level of confidence among the project team that this can be achieved. UPDATE 13 March 2013: Completion expected by end November 2013.

This confidence was given an extra boost at the beginning of this week when legislation was passed by the Northern Ireland Assembly to allow images of the historical bmd certificates to be viewed by the public. Until now, the public were allowed to view the indexes and could order copies of certificates, but they have not been allowed to view images of the certificates. Thankfully, this issue has been resolved in good time and will not cause any last minute delay to the project's completion.

The busy team at DiscoverEverAfter.com has been commissioned to carry out surveying work at four more graveyards in Northern Ireland:

Magheradroll Cemetery, Ballynahinch, Co Down

Parish of Kilmegan, Castlewellan, Co Down

St Malachy's, Kilcoo, Co Down

St John the Baptist, Bushmills, Co Antrim

The surveys will commence in January. At the pace this team works, expect to see the results ie indexed and searchable burial records on the website within a couple of months.

Before then, several thousand additional records will have been uploaded from the nine graveyards announced at the beginning of December (these include burial grounds in Leitrim, Louth, Tyrone, Armagh and Derry – see report and list here). These freely available records will start to appear on the website early in the New Year.

The Great Parchment Book was a survey of all the lands in County Derry/Londonderry seized by the Crown and includes names, placenames and details of rentals and contracts. It has been described as the Domesday Book of Derry. All 165 parchment pages were badly damaged in a fire at the London Guildhall back in 1786, so they have never before been studied. This project, which has carefully conserved the fragile pages, will greatly enhance our understanding of the Plantation of Ulster.

Here's a timely reminder that the Genealogy Advisory Service (GAS) at the National Archives of Ireland continues to operate over the Christmas period – bar the bank holidays.

The free service is provided by a consortium run by Eneclann and Ancestor Network. Genealogists are available from 10am to 1.30pm in a dedicated room just off the Reading Room, and can be consulted on a first-come, first-served basis. As any regular researchers to the NAI will know, queueing is the norm.

However, Fiona Fitzsimons of Eneclann has told Irish Genealogy News that the festive period is traditionally a particularly quiet time of year for the GAS. 'This means it can be a great opportunity for visitors to the NAI to consult the panel of professional genealogists,' she said.

'For anyone with a particularly difficult family history conundrum, this could be their chance to get the undivided attention of a genealogist to solve the problem.'

The genealogy service is available in the NAI reading room on these dates over the 'holidays':

Next week:
Thursday 27 December
Friday 28 December

Following week:
Monday 31 December
Wednesday 2 January
Thursday 4 January
Friday 5 January

Wednesday, 19 December 2012

Cork City and County Archives (CCCA) has updated its online offer with the burial registers of St Joseph's, a large Roman Catholic cemetery that dates from the mid-19th ce3ntury and is sited on the old Botanic Gardens on Tory Top Road, Ballyphehane, on the south side of Cork City.

The registers now available date from 1 Jul 1904 to 11 Jul 1917 and can be downloaded in a series of pdfs here.

The archives also hold burial voucher books in hard copy for the same dates. These books often record additional information such as the name and address of the owner of the grave and the cause of death but you need to visit the archives to study them.

Additionally, CCCA has today uploaded descriptive lists for ALL Cork City Council Committee minutes from 1867 to 1929. More details.

Just over a year since it was originally proposed (see my report here), a Cork passport is to become a reality.

Unlike the original tongue-in-cheek proposal, there will be no border tolls on the M8. Instead, the passport will be issued by Cork City Hall, thereby attaching that hint of 'officialdom' to the initiative, which will form part of the Cork Gathering – Rebel Week – 14-20 October 2013.

St Stephen's (26 December) sees the launch of this year's Start Your Family Tree Week (SYFTW). The promotion is timed to coincide with a natural spike of interest that follows all the family Xmas get-togethers and sets many budding family historians on their quest.

FindMyPast Ireland is going to celebrate SYFTW with a competition. It'll be run on social media only – Facebook, Google+ and Twitter – and will require just a little bit of light reading to discover the answers to six daily questions.

With a Blackberry Tablet and a 12-month World Subscription up for grabs, it might be as well to restrict the sherry intake over the holidays!

Find out more about the competiton and how to enter here (link removed after expiry of promotion).

In the meantime, Find My Past Ireland is continuing to offer both a FREE 14-day trial and 15% discounts on both the World and the Britain & Ireland collections.

Tuesday, 18 December 2012

Irish Origins has added free-to-view maps of Ireland's pre-1858 probate jurisdictions* to their collection. The maps are based on those created by Jeremy Gibson for his book Probate Jurisdictions: Where to Look for Wills.

They are helpful to researchers because Irish counties rarely line up neatly with probate jurisdictions. Click the following links to view them:

FamilySearch has added the Landed Estate Court Rentals 1850-1885 to its database.

This record set makes up one of the best 'census substitute' collections available. It covers the entire island, but includes only bankrupted estates (around 8000 of them), so not everyone with tenant ancestors will find details pertinent to their research. About half a million people are recorded.

When the Landed Estate Court (LEC) took responsibility for the sale of an insolvent estate, it produced promotional information, not unlike today's pre-auction catalogues. This broke down the estate into lots and the 'catalogue' showed the names of tenants, the value of their rents and the terms of their tenancies. Maps were also produced in the 'catalogue', showing the boundaries of these lots. Where urban properties formed part of the estate, a village plan shows the location of the building.

This collection on Family Search can be searched. Some 682,055 records are indexed and 107,598 images can be browsed. However, the images can only be accessed at LDS Family History Centers or other LDS affiliated institutions. Only limited information – name, place and date of LEC sale – is returned by the search facility.

If you find a likely candidate through the search facility, you can follow up your research through the pay-to-view site FindMyPast.

Monday, 17 December 2012

A few weeks back I mentioned that the National Archives of Ireland would be increasing their fees for copying services in the New Year. You can read that post here.

The full revised fee schedule has now been published – all eleven pages – in pdf format and can be downloaded for leisurely consumption! The revised costs come into effect when the NAI opens on 2 January 2013.

The final uploads for the 1854 Royal Irish Constabulary records, and possibly some others, are expected to be added before the end of the year so look out for one more update before the New Year gets properly underway.

Thursday, 13 December 2012

Historian and author Turtle Bunbury, who also co-presents The Genealogy Roadshow, has launched a new project called Wistorical.

It's an initiative that aims to raise awareness of local history and of the characters that lived around and about. Interviewed on RTE Radio 1's John Murray Show on Monday, Turtle explained that he wants Wistorical to help bring local history to life and increase people's engagement with the wealth of stories around them.

He says he want people who are driving through Banagher in co Offaly to think of Charlotte Bronte, who spent her honeymoon in the town; when they are in Edwardstown, co Longford, he wants them to think of local man Henry Edgeworth, who gave King Louis XVI the last rites before he stepped up to the guillotine; and when they're in Hacketstown, co Carlow, he wants them to think of one William Presley who was beaten up by ruffians in 1775, prompting him to leave for America; his descendent was none other than Elvis Presley. He wants these and many more historical events involving or connecting historical figures to Ireland to become better known.

The project is still in its early days. It has its own facebook page, where Turtle is posting one or two stories every day, along with an illustration or portrait. You'll find the Elvis story there, along with a growing number of other fascinating snippets. It's proving popular. In less than two weeks, it has a following of more than 1,000.

Eventually, Turtle plans to create a dedicated website for the stories, and to map out the connections to the relevant places.

Wednesday, 12 December 2012

Alan Godfrey Maps has released an Old Ordnance Survey Map for Banbridge, co Down, in 1901. It is the first Irish destination map to be published by the company in some time.

This detailed, double-sided map of Banbridge covers an area of about 1.5 miles x 1 mile. The main map covers the centre and west of the town. Features include Newry Street, most of Bridge Street, railway station, Edenderry Works, Workhouse, Downshire Arms Hotel, Court House, Brookfield Weaving Factory, and countryside westward to Grove Hill and Ringsend.

The map on the reverse side includes Holy Trinity church, St Patrick's Roman Catholic church, weaving factories on the Bann, Church Square and Ballydown Bleach Works.

You can check out the full list of destinations in the Old Ordnance Survey range, and buy the Banbridge map (£2.50 + p&p), here.

Copies of the census extracts can be found at the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland in Belfast (microfilm reference MIC 1P/247a), but they are also now available to members of Emerald Ancestors via its Look Up facility.

If you were planning on visiting WDYTYA?Live at London's Olympia in February, this might be a deal worth looking at....

The publishers of Who Do You Think You Are magazine are offering a package of two tickets to the Exhibition for £25 PLUS five issues of the magazine for £5; the total package price of £30 represents a saving of £38.95.

You have to subscribe and fill in a direct debit mandate to take up the offer. When you have received your first five issues, payments continue at £17.95 for every six issues, a saving of 40% on the newsstand price.

Alternatively, you can just take up the ticket discount offer of two tickets for £25. Select the day you want to attend and enter the promotional code NEWS2425 when you book.

If you can't make it to Olympia but would like to take up the five magazine issues option for £5, go to this page to order.

The Association of Professional Genealogists in Ireland (APGI) – the accrediting body for professional genealogists in Ireland – has introduced a new ‘Affiliate’ category for those working towards obtaining membership. It is specifically designed for those in the early stages of a career in professional genealogy who aspire to becoming an APGI member.

This is a new departure for APGI. Since its foundation in 1986 it has provided representation and support only for those admitted to its membership by its independent Board of Assessors. The inspiration for extending representation and encouragement to those working towards membership has come from similar programmes operated by the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (AGRA) and the Association of Scottish Genealogists and Researchers in Archives (ASGRA). AGRA and ASGRA are APGI’s counterparts in Great Britain and they are organisations with which it has had close co-operation in recent years.

Those accepted as affiliates will be entitled to have their names and addresses included in the list of Affiliates issued by APGI, and to attend general meetings, professional development events and social gatherings organised by APGI. APGI hopes that close contact with its members, as well as an informal mentoring process, should prove beneficial to Affiliates in honing their skills.

Becoming an Affiliate is not a necessary part of applying for membership of APGI but the category should assist any applicant in working towards accreditation and developing their career. Affiliate status is for those who are resident in Ireland (Republic or Northern Ireland) currently conducting genealogical research in Irish records for a fee. As it is designed for people trying to develop a career in genealogy, it is not open to those currently employed at any full time occupation outside of genealogy.

Practical experience of genealogical research is the basic requirement. It is not necessary to have attended any courses in genealogy. However, while completion of a course will not count towards eventual application for membership of APGI, nonetheless such a course should be of benefit to anyone seeking to gain more knowledge of genealogical sources.

Affiliates must abide by the APGI Code of Practice and apply for membership of APGI within two years. They may retain Affiliate status for a maximum of four years, and acceptance as an Affiliate does not guarantee eventual membership of APGI. Full details of the Affiliate category may be found here.

A newly published book exploring Belfast's development from the mid-1800s to the start of the First World War may be of interest to researchers with ancestral connections to the city.

Belfast: The Emerging City 1850-1914 is edited by Dr Olwen Purdue and brings together 17 studies that tell the story of a huge port city of increasingly diverse culture to which people flocked in search of work. The range of topics covered in the book is also wide but all the essays focus on the people who built or governed the city, and those lived in it or worked in it, or were just passing through.

With 304 pages and illustrated in colour this is a paperback that family historians with Belfast ancestors would enjoy and learn from. It is published by Irish Academic Press and priced @ £19.99. It's available through BooksIreland and other online sellers.

You can find out more about the book in this interview with Dr Purdue from the Irish News.

Tuesday, 11 December 2012

The Ulster Historical Foundation has added the Old Mills of Ireland to its members-only database.

This listing of the old mills of Ireland has been prepared from 19th-century Valuation Office documents in Dublin and from the equivalent records in the Public Record Office of Northern Ireland. The information is principally from the 1830s to the 1850s and there is a separate section for each of the 32 counties. Details for each county have been listed and indexed and there are also introductory notes to the Valuation Office records themselves.

The information on each mill includes:

the name of the townland in which each mill was situated

the name of the proprietor or the miller who toiled there at this period

the buildings associated with each milling complex (including dimensions)

Many entries also include details of the machinery at the mill ie dimensions of the water wheel.

First published in a series of four volumes, this Guide to the Mills of Ireland was researched and created by William E Hogg of Dalkey, Co Dublin, and has obvious value to both genealogists and those interested in the technological/industrial advances of 19th-century Ireland.

The information is accessible via the Members' Area of the Ulster Historical Foundation's website, AncestryIreland. Members should login and then follow the link to the Members' Area.

Monday, 10 December 2012

The British Newspaper Archive has added The Sligo Champion to its portfolio. This update to the BNA database (which, as of this morning, holds 6,072,044 pages of newspapers from across the UK and Ireland) includes all issues of the weekly newspaper from 14 April 1923.

The Sligo Champion is still going strong and celebrated its 175th anniversary last year, so there are plenty more editions that could join the line-up. Whether or not there are plans to do that, I don't know.

Either way, this seems like a good time to catch up on the Irish portfolion now available on the British Newspaper Archive database.

Belfast Newsletter:BNA's collection includes 1828 to 1850 (Tuesdays and Fridays) – complete; 1851 to 1855 (Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays) – complete; 1856 to 1899 (Monday to Saturday) – complete except for the following missing editions: July to December 1868 inclusive, May to December 1878 inclusive, July to December 1880 inclusive, January to April 1883 inclusive.

Cork Examiner: Mondays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. From 30 August 1841 to end 1847 is complete. 1923 and 1926 also complete.

Freeman's Journal: Ireland's longest running national newspaper. 1820 and 1821 complete. 1830 to 1859 complete except for 1858 (January to June missing). July 1860 to 1870 complete except for some missing in last two weeks of August 1869. 1871 has a handful of editions missing. 1872 to 1889 is complete. 1890 is missing October and November. 1891 to September 1900 is complete.

The Sligo Champion: One of Ireland's top regionals. Weekly (Saturdays). From 14 April 1923 to end of year complete.

The British Newspaper Archives has a range of packages available from £6.95 (2 days/100 pages) to £79.95 (annual/unlimited pages).

None of these Irish newspapers is included in the 200-strong BNA selection of papers available via FindMyPast.

FindMyPast Ireland has today launched a collection that contains the names and discharge documents of almost 20,000 soldiers held at the Royal Hospital Kilmainham from 1783-1822.

The pension records show details of soldiers, including their height, weight, colour of hair and eyes and any distinguishing features such as a tattoo or scar, as well as where they served and their regiment.

Among them is Private Hugh Burke from Wicklow, who was pensioned from the army on 26 June 1816 after four years’ service. He was deemed unfit for further service after receiving “a gunshot wound to the left shoulder received in action near New Orleans in America on the 8th of January 1815.”

The Battle of New Orleans is famous because it was the last major battle between the British and American forces in the War of 1812 and was fought after a peace treaty had already been signed.

The Treaty of Ghent, which signalled the end of the war, came into effect at the start of February 1815 but due to slow communications the news did not reach New Orleans until two weeks later. Unfortunately for Private Hugh Burke this left him with “a mark on each side of his left shoulder” - entry and exit wounds from the bullet.

Brian Donovan, a family historian from findmypast said: 'The number of Irish men who fought in the British army was extensive and these records allow us to glimpse the lives and careers of these soldiers.

'What makes the Kilmainham series so exciting is how far in time they stretch back. There is detailed information about rank and file soldiers born before 1750, about the regiments they served with, where they travelled, and injuries received. Scanned in colour, indexed and published online for the first time, these records are a fantastic addition to the findmypast collection.'

The task of cataloguing the records took a team of 14 people from the Friends of The National Archives volunteer group just over 3 years and includes the records of 19,109 soldiers. The Royal Hospital Kilmainham, the building that now houses the Irish Museum of Modern Art, was established in 1681 to house sick and veteran troops from the British Army.

William Spencer, military expert at the UK National Archives added: 'Many soldiers born in Ireland served in the British Army from the 18th-20th centuries yet the careers of these brave men have been hidden amongst some fragile and complex records. The digitisation of the Kilmainham papers in WO 119, will at last provide access to the brave men of Ireland.'

The Royal Hospital Kilmainham pension records are part of a larger collection of military discharge documents today released by findmypast including:

Royal Hospital, Kilmainham: pensioners’ discharge documents 1771-1821 (known as WO 119 at the National Archives)

The Winter issue of the Archives and Records Association's Newsletter has just been published and contains some features that I'm sure Irish genealogy researchers would find valuable.

First up is an article about the Bureau of Military History. It includes some background to the archive and the hows and whys of its creation, as well as providing some interesting statistics about how popular it has proved to be since its launch online (nearly half a million page views since August!). A selection of witness statements from the collection demonstrates how varied and detailed these papers can be.

Another recent addition to the genealogists armoury is the Soldiers' Wills collection which was launched by the National Archives of Ireland last month. The Newsletter carries two articles about this release. The first concentrates on a 'history' of the collection and its preparation for digitisation. The second is an in-depth look at the materials and techniques used to repair some of the wills, which were removed from the pocket books of the soldiers after their death.

Finally, if you weren't able to attend any of the Ulster Covenant lectures held at PRONI in September, the Newsletter contains a very useful summary of the four-week series. It also advises that a similar series of lectures will be presented next September to explore aspects of the Volunteer movements.

Well worth finding some time for a read through. You can download it from the ARAI website.

The December issue of Irish Lives Remembered Genealogy Magazine has been published.

Features include advice on tracing Irish immigrants in Tasmania and Irish medical practitioners in Western Australia, a history of the British (and, therefore, Irish) in India, an analysis by well-known fashion historian Jayne Shrimpton of family photographs from County Clare, and some ancestral biographies of Irish Americans from Sligo, Waterford and Clare.

This month's in-depth location focus is on County Clare.

You can download the magazine as a pdf to your computer or view it on-screen here.

The National Archives of Ireland has announced that, with effect from Wednesday 2 January 2013, it is to increase its charges for copying and for providing certified copies to researchers. It represents the first restructuring of prices for 25 years, so it's not surprising the rises are rather substantial.

A summary of the new charges for the most requested copying services can be found here. Regular visitors will notice that the Copy Card, which is used to photocopy text documents or to print off from microfilms, has, effectively, doubled in price.

The hike for certified copies looks likely to raise some blood pressure, too!

Wednesday, 5 December 2012

The Offaly Historical & Archaeological Society will be holding its annual Christmas party and lecture at Offaly History Centre on Friday 7 December at 8pm. The guest speaker will be author, historian and university lecturer (UCD), Professor Diarmaid Ferriter.

His subject will be Old Moulds Broken? The Irish Republic in the 1970s and will consider the widespread social, cultural, economic and political upheavals of the 1970s. This was a decade when, for the first time, a majority of the population lived in urban areas. During this period economic challenges abounded, Ireland joined the EEC, an Irish feminist movement became increasingly visible, and institutions – including the Church – began to be subjected to new criticism. His lecture is based on his new book Ambiguous Republic: Ireland in the 1970s.

If you wish to attend please book by emailing or ringing the centre on 05793 21412. The lecture will be followed by a social evening and refreshments. Costs: €12 to members and €15 to non-members.

Irish Newspaper Archives (INA) has continued its programme of new releases with the following publications now ready for searching:

Limerick Leader 1905–1970 and 1989–2000

Kilkenny People 1921–1960 and 1981–2004

The Donegal News 1940–1979 should be added to the INA line-up before the end of the year.

Next year will see more copies of the Belfast Newsletter available on the site. Editions for the years 1738–1799 (with some gaps) are already searchable and they will be joined by those for 1800–1899 during the first quarter or so of 2013.

Irish Newspaper Archives plans to have at least one newspaper per county on the site by the end of next year.

There's no set pattern to Christmas and New Year closures at the main repositories and libraries for Irish genealogical research, so make a note of these details before organising any family history trips over the festive season:

Public Records Office of Northern Ireland (PRONI), Belfast
PRONI will close at 4:45pm on Thursday 20 December. It will be open on Friday 21 December until 4:15pm but will then close until 10am on Thursday 27 December. There will be no late night service on that day. Otherwise, normal hours continue to end of the year. Closed Tuesday 1 January, reopening Wednesday 2 January.

General Register Office of Northern Ireland (GRONI), Belfast
GRONI will be closed Monday 24 to Wednesday 26 December inclusive, and again on Tuesday 1 January. Otherwise operating a normal service to standard hours.
All local libraries in Northern Ireland
Closed Monday 24 to Wednesday 26 December inclusive, and again on Tuesday 1 January. Normal hours outside of these closures.

National Archives of Ireland, Dublin
The Reading Room will be closed from 12.30pm on Monday 24 December 2012 until 10am on Thursday 27 December. Normal hours 27, 28 and 31 December. It will be closed on Tuesday 1 January 2013, reopening 10am on Wednesday 2 January. Note: there will be no Genealogy Advisory Service on Christmas Eve.
National Library of Ireland, Dublin
The National Library Reading Room will close on Friday 21 December at 4.45pm, reopening Wednesday 2 January. Exhibitions will, however, be open except 24-26 inclusive and 1 January. See details.

Representative Church Body Library, Dublin
The Library will be closed from 5pm Friday 21 December 2012 until 9.30am Wednesday 2nd January 2013.

General Register Office, Dublin
The Research Room at the Irish Life Centre in Dublin will be closed from lunchtime on Christmas Eve, 24 December, until 9:30am on Thursday 27 December. Normal working hours on 27, 28 and 31 December. Closed Tuesday 1 January. Reopening with normal hours Wednesday 2 January.

Irish Genealogical Research Society Library, London
The Library in the crypt of St Magnus the Martyr will be open 2-5pm on Saturday 22 but closed on 29 December. Normal pattern resumes Saturday 5 January 2013.

Society of Genealogists, London
The Society closes for Christmas at 4pm on Saturday 22 December and reopens at 10am on Thursday 27 December. Normal hours 27-29 December. Closed Monday 31 December to Monday 7 January inclusive for stocktaking.

The National Archives UK, London
TNA will be closed on Saturday 22 December to Wednesday 26 December inclusive. Reopens with normal hours on Thursday 27 December but closed Tuesday 1 January.

Tuesday, 4 December 2012

A webinar – Researching Your Irish Ancestors: Beyond the Basics – will take place on Wednesday 5 December at 7:00 to 8:30pm Dublin and London/2:00pm to 3:30pm Eastern Standard Time. It will particularly focus on overcoming problems with names and places.

The presenter of this Legacy Family Tree Webinar will be Judith Eccles Wight, a well-known genealogist who specialises in Irish and Scottish research and writes for many publications including Irish Roots magazine.

The webinar is free. It is a live online class, or seminar, that you watch on your computer. You can also type your questions to be answered during the presentation. Register here (link removed after event).

Eneclann has continued its programme to digitise its back catalogue with a bumper release of 38 newly converted publications. As easy to download ebooks/pdfs, these publications are cheaper than cd format, and there are no postal charges, either.

The new list – which includes the provincial sections of Pigot’s directory for 1824, Slater’s directories for 1846, 1870 and 1894, and Huguenot titles – can be viewed here.

In addition to making existing books available digitally, the company has added some new publications. Available in a choice of cd and digital format, the Irish-interest titles are:

John Curry M.D. An Historical and Critical Review of the Civil Wars in Ireland, from the Reign of Queen Elizabeth to the Settlement under King William (2 Vols), 1786

The Fifth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland, 1873

The Sixth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland, 1874

The Eleventh Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records in Ireland, 1879

The Sixteenth Report of the Deputy Keeper of the Public Records of Ireland, 1884

Two new dvd collections have also been published at special offer rates:

War of Independence Collection includes seven titles: The Sinn Fein Rebellion Handbook (Irish Times 1917); The Administration of Ireland 1920; The American Commission on Conditions in Ireland, Interim and Full Reports; Report of the Labour Commission to Ireland, 1921; The Case for Ireland Re-Stated; and Dail Eireann: Minutes of the Proceedings of the First Parliament 1919-1921. €32.44 plus VAT.

Monday, 3 December 2012

The Gathering Ireland 2013 will get off to an exciting start on New Year's Eve when RTÉ marks the launch of the year-long event from Dublin. This launch broadcast will be available internationally on all manner of platforms including mobiles, tablets, PCs and even TVs (see below) so that those who love Ireland can join in the capital city’s New Year celebrations wherever they are.

RTÉ Television, RTÉ Radio and RTÉ.ie will ring in the New Year live from the NYE Dublin Countdown Concert in College Green, with headliner Imelda May and Bell X1 featuring at the event. Highlights from the NYE Dublin Festival including the People’s Procession of Light and the Big Bang Fireworks Spectacular will be covered, and special guests will be joining tv and radio presenters. The plan is to showcase the action and convey the atmosphere at the first official gathering of 2013.

New Year’s Eve Live – The Gathering begins on RTÉ Radio 1 at 10pm and RTÉ One television at 10.30pm, while RTÉ.ie will be the central hub for all of RTÉ’s coverage.

NYE Dublin is the first event of the Gathering Ireland 2013, a year-long calendar of Gatherings, special festivals and events organised by the people of Ireland to celebrate all that is great about our country/ancestral homeland.

The Portglenone-based company behind DiscoverEverAfter.com, the website which holds some 45,691 free-to-access burial records from more than 60 graveyards in Northern Ireland, has announced it will be adding a further 20,000 records over the next two months.

Director Leona McAllister told Irish Genealogy News that surveys are being carried out at seven more Northern Ireland burial grounds. 'These include Lurgan, which, with 2000-odd plots is the largest single site we've completed so far,' she said. 'The majority of the graveyards we've previously surveyed have been rural burial grounds with 300-400 plots.'

But the company, which launched its website only six months ago, is moving past its own milestones at quite a pace. It's also moving south. 'We're starting our first survey in the Republic,' says Leona. 'It's at Drogheda's Our Lady of Lourdes in Co Louth and it's the biggest graveyard we've worked at. Our surveyers has just gone onto the 4,000-plot site and it will take six to eight weeks to complete and get all the data uploaded to the site.'

The full list of burial grounds where surveys are being carried out or will start shortly:

Please be aware that the annual release of files to the media from the National Archives of Ireland (NAI) and PRONI impacts on the services available to genealogy researchers at the two institutions.

At the NAI, the Reading Room will be closed to the public this Wednesday, Thursday and Friday (5-7 December inclusive) while journalists and broadcasters get stuck into records that have been closed for 30 years. As a result, the Genealogy Advisory Service will be unavailable on these dates.

PRONI's media preview takes place next week (10-14 December inclusive). While the Reading Room's document production service will be suspended throughout the week, other services in the Public Search Room, self-service microfilm, exhibition etc remain open to visitors.

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Welcome to Irish Genealogy News

Irish genealogy research is famous for being difficult, if not impossible. This reputation isn't entirely deserved, although there can be some fundamental difficulties in discovering your Irish ancestry, particularly if you don't know where your ancestors lived. That's why I launched my website, Irish Genealogy Toolkit. It's a free online guide to Irish family history research, and it's designed to helpyou to find your heritage.

This blog runs in parallel with the Toolkit. As its name suggests, it carries all the latest Irish genealogy news, and it's read by professional and amateur genealogists alike.

Be sure to bookmark the blog's home page, and check in regularly to keep up to date with all that's happening in the world of Irish family history.